Development Research

Economic growth has slowed down dramatically and poverty is on the rise everywhere. Questions therefore have arisen whether these setbacks will have a permanent effect, jeopardizing progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Development Research Branch (DRB) organized a seminar on emerging opportunities and challenges for data scientists in using big data. Prof. Xiao-Li Meng of Harvard University, founding editor-in-chief of Harvard Data Science Review, spoke about the trade-offs data scientists face in dealing with the expanding universe of data.

While a decade of rapid expansion of the sharing economy increasingly enable better utilization of assets, it shows little signs of delivering fair and equitable welfare gains for all participants in the sharing economy. Instead it has generated unchecked externalities and unintended consequences.

The Sustainable Deve­lop­ment Goals (SDGs) have registered some progress since their adoption in 2015. However, gathering storms of weakening global economic growth, rising income inequality, unabated global warming and climate change, and escalating conflict are impeding SDG implementation. The tailwinds of rapid technological advances, on the other hand, offer best hope for accelerating SDG progress.

The severity of plastic pollution is now well-recognized, and countries and communities are looking for innovative solutions for addressing this menace of the modern age.

Speakers emphasized that the SDGs demand an integrated approach at all levels as no domestic policy can be detached from the regional and global environment in which it operates, and stressed that LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDs remain the most vulnerable to these interlinkages and global challenges, such as climate change.

Genetic technologies—the ability to manipulate and transform the properties of cells, seeds, microbes, insects, plants, animals and even humans—are pushing the frontiers of science and offers us new hope for disease control and cure. Genetic technologies are changing the way we produce food, improving crop yield and preventing catastrophic losses from droughts, floods and pests.

The Development Research Branch, in partnership with Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, hosted a unique Development Policy Seminar featuring the inaugural Ivy three-minute thesis competition in New York. Dubbed as IVY3MT2019, the event provided a platform to 14 PhD candidates from Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University to present their PhD dissertation ideas and key messages in 3 minutes, using only one slide.

Data is shaping the future of humanity. The production, distribution and consumption of digital data-the data economy-are driving rapid advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation. Individuals and businesses are using data to reduce search and transaction costs and make informed choices.